Where The Old World Ends

A poem about standing between the familiar past and the unknown future

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Wendi Kehn/Hellbloom Haven

Mar 10, 2026

Where the Old World Ends

There comes a quiet place in life
where something shifts within,
a trembling line you cannot see
where the old world slowly ends.

You look behind at who you were,
the paths your feet once knew,
the habits, hopes, familiar roads
that once felt safe and true.

You see the growth within your bones,
the ways your heart has changed,
the truths you carry in your chest
that cannot be rearranged.

A part of you still reaches back
toward what was known before,
toward doors you once walked easily
that do not fit you anymore.

The past still whispers softly there
with comfort in its voice,
reminding you how simple life
once felt without a choice.

Yet something deeper calls you on
beyond the edge you know,
a quiet pull toward who you’ll be
and all you’ll someday grow.

Fear walks beside you in that place
where certainty once stood,
for change reveals a simple truth:
you’re not yet done becoming who you could.

Poem by Wendi Kehn

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Behind the Poem – Where the Old World Ends

There are moments in life where you begin to see clearly that you are no longer who you once were.

The things that once felt familiar start to feel different. The places, patterns, and even relationships that shaped you no longer fit in quite the same way. Growth has happened, whether you planned for it or not.

What makes this stage so unsettling is that the next version of your life has not fully appeared yet.

You can see that you have outgrown parts of the past. At the same time, the future still feels uncertain. A strange space opens up between those two realities.

Part of you wants to return to what was familiar. The past may have held pain, but it also held certainty. The unknown asks for something much harder: trust.

That in-between space can feel lonely and frightening, yet it is also where transformation quietly happens.

“Where the Old World Ends” was written about that threshold. It is the moment when you can see the growth that has taken place inside you, even while knowing the journey of becoming is not finished.

It is the place where you realize you cannot go back to who you were, even though you cannot yet see who you are becoming.

Many of life’s most important changes happen in that quiet middle space.

Growth rarely arrives with clear instructions. Sometimes it simply asks us to stand at the edge of the old world for a while and trust that the next one is slowly forming.

If something here resonated with you, you may also want to explore the Hellbloom Haven Trauma Portal, a free educational resource designed to help people better understand trauma, how it affects us, and tools that support healing and self-awareness.

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